Yosra Albakkar

Yosra Albakkar is Daughters for Life’s first graduate; she has recently become the regional manager for developmental projects targeting regional water cooperation and natural resources with the Swedish Embassy & SIDA (the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency) in Amman, Jordan. Her main responsibilities include managing support of these projects in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, as well as identifying and assessing possible cooperation partners and programs, and providing recommendations to the Agency for decision-making.

This position allows her to apply the knowledge that she accumulated over the years to better serve her country, the region and the world.

Yosra appreciates the role played by Daughters for Life in her life. She feels that she would not be the person she is, nor would she be able to be doing what she is doing, without the support from Daughters for Life.

Yosra Albakkar, a well-travelled Jordanian woman, is a tireless advocate, researcher and spokesperson for water and other natural resource sustainability and governance, social justice, equity and gender equality issues.

Yosra believes in the power of the individual as a catalyst for change. Trained as a radiographer and certified in Neuro Linguistics Programming, she began her career working with terminally ill patients, employing her skills of compassionate listening and persuasion to help reluctant patients return to treatment, helping create a bridge between life and death. Leaving the hospital, Yosra turned her attention to water scarcity and the Arab-Israeli conflict. In 2010-2011, she studied at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in Israel. Yosra joined the board of directors of the Friends of the Arava in 2014. In September of the same year, she graduated from Trent University (Canada) with a Master’s degree in Sustainability. Her thesis addressed waste water treatment and use for agriculture in Jordan, focussing on governance, social engagement and equity issues.

In 2010, Yosra co-founded the NGO Green Earth with a group of young Jordanians aiming to raise public awareness about environmental issues facing Jordan and engage people to be part of future solutions. The next year, Yosra won second place as ‘The Next Jordanian Role Model’, an online competition for aspiring young Jordanians, and co-published her first scientific article in Revolve Magazine in Holland.

Yosra has received a number of prestigious awards and recognition for her outstanding service. These include acting as a Jordanian Climate Ambassador at the DIMNA Climate Change Conference in Denmark; being selected as a She Entrepreneur by the Swedish Institute, which provides training in social entrepreneurship and sustainability for female entrepreneurs; working as a Global Politics Ambassador for Jordanian students at the Global Politics Center at the Free University of Berlin; and being the first recipient of the Daughters for Life Foundation scholarship. Proud and happy to be the first DFL graduate, she works hard to keep the door wide open for other women to join and achieve their dreams.

Fuelled by her love for the Middle East and her passion for peace and conflict resolution; Yosra dreams of becoming a politician in Jordan and helping to build bridges of peace for the future.

The Daughters for Life Foundation is a Canadian registered charity that creates accessible education opportunities for young women from the Middle East and helps them uncover their powerful potential to be the voices of equality, leaders of development, and agents of change in their communities.